History
The first scientific paper detailing the triple junction concept was published in 1969 by W. Jason Morgan, Dan McKenzie, and Tanya Atwater. The term has traditionally been used for the intersection of three divergent boundaries or spreading ridges. These three divergent boundaries ideally meet at near 120° angles.
In plate tectonics theory during the breakup of a continent, one of the divergent plate boundaries would fail (see aulacogen) and the other two would continue spreading to form an ocean. The opening of the south Atlantic Ocean started at the south of the South American and African continents, reaching a triple junction in the present Gulf of Guinea, from where it continued to the west. The NE-trending Benue Trough is the failed arm of this junction.
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